Minnesota Crop News

Join Minnesota Crop Production Retailers and the University of Minnesota Extension this December for three days of focused professional development. From Tuesday, December 2nd through Thursday, December 4th, the Hilton Minneapolis will host the premier gathering for the Minnesota ag community. Dive into the latest in: Market Trends & Legislative Updates Agronomy & Nutrient Management Weed, Disease & Insect Management Leadership Development & Regulatory Updates Beyond the Trade Show, this event is your essential resource for advancing your knowledge. Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) CEUs and Pesticide Applicator Recertification (categories A, C, H) are available. In addition, there will be a special Student Day to provide college students the chance to hear directly from ag professionals about career paths, challenges and the future of the industry and talk with ag retailers, suppliers and innovators at the trade show. Find all program details, registration, and hotel inform...

The Minnesota Office of Soil Health (MOSH) will host an online training workshop for local conservationists in Minnesota to explore a new tool to visualize and compare precipitation and erosion trends at the local scale. The tools are designed to help conservation professionals analyze watershed trends and create graphics for outreach based on daily models that incorporate precipitation, topography, and cropping practices. In this session, Eduardo Luquin will provide an overview of the Daily Erosion Project (DEP) and introduce two new interactive dashboards. The DEP is a modeling framework providing daily public estimates of runoff and soil loss from hillslopes at the HUC12 scale. The DEP is continuously improved to better fit Minnesota’s unique landscape, building on a collaboration between University of Minnesota and Iowa State University and funded by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources. The output from the daily model can be very complex, so the new dashboards make it ...

Yucheng Wang, University of Minnesota, Entomology, Postdoc Researcher Tatum Dwyer, University of Minnesota, Entomology, Graduate student Fei Yang, University of Minnesota, Extension Entomologist Figure 1. Common stalk borer damage. Photo: Fei Yang, University of Minnesota During July-August 2025, we unexpectedly observed significant damage resembling European corn borer (ECB) injury along the edges of several corn fields in Martin and Mower Counties, Minnesota (Figure 1).  Figure 2. Common stalk borer in corn stalk. Photo: Fei Yang, University of Minnesota Affected plants showed rows of holes on the leaves and boring damage in the stalks. However, dissection of the corn stalk revealed that the culprit was common stalk borer (CSB), Papaipema nebris (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), rather than ECB (Figure 2).  Figure 3.  Bt trait testing of the affected plants. Photo: Fei Yang,  University of Minnesota Bt trait testing of the affected plants confirmed the expr...

This month on the Nutrient Management Podcast , we talk about a recent increase in N rate recommendations for corn. Why have these suggested nitrogen rates for corn increased over time? How are regional differences across Minnesota factored into this increase? Why does the Maximum Return to Nitrogen (MRTN) method of N rate calculation bring economics into the mix? Why should growers focus on profit instead of yield? Won't a higher nitrogen rate make our SE Minnesota water issues worse? Our panelists answer these important questions - and many more - on today's show. Read the full transcript Guests: Jeff Vetsch, U of M researcher (Waseca) Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Brad Carlson, Extension educator (Mankato) Additional Resources: www.cornnratecalc.org  (N Rate Calculator) Updated corn nitrogen rates: What are we currently seeing for N fertilizer requirements in Minnesota? An introduction to MRTN: Efficiencies & economics in mind 20...

By Sally Raymond, Extension Educator and Program Manager, Pesticide Safety and Environmental Education Do you still need to recertify for your commercial/noncommercial pesticide applicator’s license this year? Check out these options from UMN Extension PSEE. Click here to register for an A/C/H workshop or go to PSEE’s webpage to see all options and workshop agendas. The following programs will get you recertification in categories A/C, A/H, or A/C/H: November 6 - The Park Event Center, Waite Park, MN November 14 - UMN Crookston Campus, Crookston, MN November 18 - Syngenta Seedcare Institute, Dennison/Stanton, MN** November 20 - The Bigwood Event Center, Fergus Falls, MN December 2 & 3 - Hilton Minneapolis, CPM Short Course & MCPR Trade Show , Minneapolis, MN **must be licensed in category H (seed treatment) to attend, A/H and A/C/H available If you have Category J (Rights of Way, Natural Areas, Forestry) on your license, need to recertify this year, and have attended or will...

By: Brad Carlson, Extension educator The University of Minnesota uses the Maximum Return to Nitrogen (MRTN) method for helping corn growers pick a nitrogen fertilizer rate. This method uses a database of results from many research trials around the state and then factors in the price of corn and the price of nitrogen fertilizer to find the most profitable nitrogen fertilizer rate for Minnesota corn growers. Understanding the “price ratio” is key. The price ratio is the price of nitrogen fertilizer per pound to the value of a bushel of corn.  For example, if N fertilizer costs $0.40 per lb. of N (or $656 per ton of anhydrous ammonia), and corn is valued at $4.00 per bushel, the ratio would be 0.40/4.00 = 0.10. Historically, the price ratio has hovered around 0.10 but in recent years high nitrogen fertilizer prices have resulted in higher price ratios. What is the price ratio looking like heading into 2026? The University of Minnesota’s corn fertilizer guidelines ( z.umn.edu/cornfert...